


Scars

by Rangergirl3



Series: Whumptober 2019 [15]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Protective Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 04:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21264722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/pseuds/Rangergirl3
Summary: Shiro realizes that Keith has some scars even he doesn't know about.





	Scars

"Keith?"

Keith raised his head to look at the doorway to the lounge. 

_That was odd. _

Shiro was standing there, and staring down at Keith's right arm as if it had been replaced by an alien prothestic of some kind. 

"Your arm - "

Keith glanced down at his own appendage, then back up at his oldest friend.

"Yeah...? I mean, it was mine the last time I checked," he said, in an admirable imitation of a deadpan snarker.

Shiro didn't even chuckle. Instead, he just came a few cautious steps closer and then stopped, staring down at the arm of Keith's chair.

"Did you - always have that scar?"

Keith knew the one Shiro was talking about. It was the one curved in a sort of lazy half-spiral over his right forearm, directly where the bone might have, say, hit a hard surface if someone took a bad fall by accident.

_...or was pushed_.

"I think so?" he said, hoping to avoid the topic of conversation. "Anyway, I don't remember getting it."

Shiro's eyebrows shot into his hair. 

"You don't remember getting...? Keith, that must have hurt."

Keith shrugged, intent on getting back to the book he was reading as soon as he could. 

"I guess...? I just - I have a lot of 'em, you know? It's not like it's special or anything."

Shiro tapped his left hand against the arm of the chair. 

"I know. It's just - I don't remember you having that one when I left for Kereberos."

Keith shrugged again, but the book was still closed.

"Guess it must have happened out in the desert, or something."

He held Shiro's gaze for a moment intentionally. 

"It's fine. Really, it is."

Shiro nodded, slowly. 

"Okay."

He kept eye contact with Keith for another few moments before adding, "-and if you - you know. Ever need to talk."

Keith nodded.

"I know."

Shiro nodded.

"All right."

With that, Shiro left for the diplomatic mission he'd been assigned to with Allura, and Keith picked up his book again.

* * *

The initial event had happened a long time ago, but his arm hadn't scarred at the time.

An...incident...during the year that Shiro was gone had re-opened some old, old injuries. 

Keith never did understand why the damn thing refused to heal properly.

It wasn't an obvious scar. It wasn't even very noticable, unless you were someone like Shiro, who saw people and noticed things about them all the time.

It was just...a persistent one.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are quintessence!!! :D <3 <3 <3 Like, good quintessence. Not that corrupted stuff that drives you batshit insane. ;-)
> 
> True story: I have what feels like a 'dent' in my right forearm that no one I've met can explain to me. It doesn't show up on an x-ray, and I can still use my right arm and fingers just fine - actually, it's my dominant hand - but I can literally trace the indentation on my arm using two fingers of my left hand. My only guess is that its a hairline fracture that healed on its own back when I was thirteen (almost twenty years ago). My parents are not the most empathetic people, or the most observant, so when I fell and hurt my arm, I just wrapped it up in a bandage and ignored the fact that my whole forearm was black, blue, green, swollen, and painful to the touch for weeks afterwards. I preferred to deal with the discomfort rather than have my mother and father get all bitchy about spending money on stupid things like medical emergencies.
> 
> Terrible childhood experience, but great stuff to pull on for whump prompts, am I right? 
> 
> I'm on Tumblr! Come say hi! <3


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